Edward Anthony Wrigley

" ... The six censuses from 1801 to 1851 ... Professor Wrigley has now presented these data in a way that makes it possible to track back information in a manner compatible with the new reporting units of 1851 to 1801 and forwards using the traditional units from 1801 to 1851. All of these data are presented in tables that, if of a modest size, can be found in the printed pages of this volume or, if of a size too unwieldy to print in a conventional fashion, are made available in the accompanying CD"--Page [v].

English population history from family reconstitution 1580-1837 represents the culmination of work carried out at the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure over the past quarter-century. This work demonstrates the value of the technique of family reconstitution as a means of obtaining accurate and detailed information about fertility, mortality, and nuptiality in the past. Indeed, more is now known about many aspects of English demography in the parish register period than about the post-1837 period when the Registrar-General collected and published information. Using data from 26 parishes, the authors show clearly that their results are representative not only of the demographic situation of the parishes from which the data were drawn, but also of the country as a whole.

"The industrial revolution transformed the productive power of societies. It did so by vastly increasing the individual productivity, thus delivering whole populations from poverty. In this new account by one of the world's acknowledged authorities the central issue is not simply how the revolution began but still more why it did not quickly end. The answer lay in the use of a new source of energy. Pre-industrial societies had access only to very limited energy supplies. As long as mechanical energy came principally from human or animal muscle and heat energy from wood, the maximum attainable level of productivity was bound to be low. Exploitation of a new source of energy in the form of coal provided an escape route from the constraints of an organic economy but also brought novel dangers. Since this happened first in England, its experience has a special fascination, though other countries rapidly followed suit"--